By David Wiegand :
August 8, 2013
: Updated: August 8, 2013 6:23pm

Rebecca Ferguson and Max Irons star in "The White Queen," a Starz series about the dynastic battles between the Lancaster and York families in 15th century England. Ferguson displays Elizabeth's zeal for Edward as well as her unwavering ambition, and Irons brings grit and passion to his role.

The White Queen: Dramatic series. 10 p.m. Friday, special night and time, before moving to its regular slot of 9 p.m. Saturday on Aug. 17 on Starz.

Renaissance sisters are doin' it for themselves in the new limited series "The White Queen," based on Philippa Gregory's novels about England's War of the Roses in the 15th century.

Given that those dynastic battles went on for 30 years, pitting the Lancaster family against the York family for control of the British throne, with those pesky Tudors waiting in the wings to further muck things up, there should be more than enough drama to keep the series lively through its 10-part run, which kicks off Friday on Starz before moving to its regular slot on Aug. 17.

The Wars of the Roses occurred from 1455 to 1485, between descendants of Edward III. Three kings of the Lancaster branch of the family, Henry IV, V and VI, occupied the throne first, after which power shifted to the Yorks with the reign of Edward IV. We're not supposed to tell you much beyond that, about whether Edward kept his crown and whether his reign was uninterrupted, because Starz assumes its viewers don't know English history.

Hey, we didn't just fall off ye olde turnip dray, you know: We saw "The Tudors."

No matter, though, because the dramatic heart of the series isn't about the men who sat on the throne - it's about the women who either helped put them there or helped replace them.

"The White Queen" of the title is commoner Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson, "A One-Way Trip to Antibes"), a beautiful young widow who catches the eye of serial womanizer Edward IV (Max Irons, "The Host"). Unwilling to become just another notch on his bedpost, Elizabeth coyly maneuvers him into marriage. The fact that she is a commoner is reason enough for many in court to be appalled at the union, but what's worse is that her family is aligned with the Lancaster King Henry VI (David Shelley), who has lost his marbles and now his throne.

Claim to throne

For both newlyweds, theirs is a love match, but there is dynastic business to be done and that means producing a male heir as soon as possible to solidify the York hold on the throne. Others are already scheming to unseat Edward, including Lady Margaret Beaufort (Amanda Hale, "The Crimson Petal and the White"), a half-mad religious zealot who insists God has told her that her young son, Henry Tudor, will be king. She'll stop at nothing to make sure that happens.

And then there is Edward's cousin, Lord Warwick (James Frain, "The Tudors"), who is fast becoming British period drama's go-to bad guy. He may be Edward's closest adviser, but the marriage to Elizabeth Woodville means someone else has the king's ear now and that will interfere with Warwick's plans to marry one of his daughters into Edward's family to gain control of the throne.

Warwick's younger daughter, Anne Neville (Faye Marsay in her professional screen debut), may be envious watching her weak-willed elder sister Isabel (Eleanor Tomlinson, "The Illusionist") married off to Edward's evil brother George (David Oakes, "Ripper Street"), but she is already displaying the kind of ambition that will make her the third formidable female in "The White Queen's" power plays.

The costumes by Nic Ede look a little too much like something Hollywood would have whipped up in the '40s to be very credible, but I do love the elaborate headpiece worn by Edward's hateful mother, Duchess Cecily (Caroline Goodall): It looks like a giant dissected rodent left over from a high school biology class.

The great strength of the series are the performances. Ferguson, who was born in Sweden to a Swedish father and British mother, is not only commanding as she displays both Elizabeth's passion for Edward as well as unwavering ambition, but bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain Swedish actress of another generation. The slight overbite evokes young Ingrid Bergman, but more important, so does Ferguson's ability to convey vulnerability and strength at the same time.

Few British actresses do bedbug-crazy as well as Amanda Hale. Her performance as Margaret is unsettling and driven as she embodies a woman whose religious fervor reaches such heights that it becomes sexual.

Although the primary focus is on the women, Irons and Frain are equally fine in their respective roles. Irons, the son of Jeremy Irons and Sinéad Cusack, obviously has great acting in his blood. His Edward is no mere pawn of any of the women in his life. Despite the fact that he looks like a fairy-tale prince, Irons brings grit and passion to his role. Frain, who was so memorable as Thomas Cromwell in "The Tudors," is deliciously duplicitous here as well.

McTeer miscast

The one minor disappointment in the cast is the usually great Janet McTeer as Elizabeth's mother. She often looks out of place, and not just because she's a head taller than everyone else in the cast and probably the Tower of London as well. She seems detached from the role, as if she's just time-traveled back from the future.

With Showtime giving the ax to "The Borgias," and "The Tudors" having run its course, "The White Queen" is an acceptable next best thing. It may not have the production values of those shows, but it does have an Irons, who, along with the rest of the cast, makes "The White Queen" an entertaining romp through a complicated and fascinating period of English history.